URGENT ACTION ALERT / ISSUE UPDATE

Transcription

1 WASHINGTON BUREAU NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE TH STREET, NW SUITE 915 WASHINGTON, DC P (202) F (202) WASHINGTONBUREAU@NAACPNET.ORG WEB ADDRESS URGENT ACTION ALERT / ISSUE UPDATE DATE: November 22, 2017 TO: Concerned Parties FROM: Hilary O. Shelton, Director, NAACP Washington Bureau NAACP-OPPOSED TAX BILL THAT WILL HURT LOW- AND MIDDLE- INCOME AMERICANS PASSES IN THE U.S. HOUSE; US SENATE EXPECTED TO TAKE UP ITS OWN HARMFUL VERSION NEXT SENATE PROPOSAL WOULD ADD 13 MILLION AMERICANS TO THE ROLLS OF THOSE WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE TO PAY FOR CUTS FOR THE WEALTHIEST 1% THE ISSUE: On November 16, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, the misnamed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by a vote of 227 yeas to 205 nays. This legislation is bad policy for low-and middle-income Americans; it will cause great harm to public education; it could mean huge tax increases for families already saddled with exorbitant medical costs; it is meanspirited towards immigrants and non-citizens; and it is bad economic policy. It represents an opportunity lost in terms of what is needed to help all American families prosper, not just the wealthy few. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to take up its own tax cut bill beginning the week of November 27, While details of the House and Senate tax proposals differ, both would give big tax cuts to the richest families and corporations, while most middle- and low-income families would realize little or no benefit with many even seeing their taxes go up. Even more damaging is that both bills would increase the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade, forcing cuts to critical programs. That means the tax bill will ultimately lead to cuts in programs that are integral to the wellbeing of all Americans especially children and their families, senior citizens, disabled Americans, students, and lowand middle-income working families. Tax bill induced cuts will be to programs such as Medicaid, SNAP, civil rights enforcement, housing assistance, public education, Social Security, and Medicare among others. Furthermore, the Senate bill repeals the Affordable Care Act s individual mandate, the requirement that most people enroll in health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. The Senate bill also sunsets most of its individual income tax cuts after 2025, but maintains a permanent cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent to 20 percent. The savings from individual mandate repeal would pay for about one-third of that permanent rate cut and increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 13 million in Furthermore, repealing the individual mandate would increase insurance premiums by 10%, which amounts to hundreds of dollars per year for nearly 7 million middle-income Americans and over $1,000 per year for seniors. Similar to the House-passed bill, the Senate bill would also repeal the federal deduction for state and local income and sales taxes and cap the deduction for state property taxes, which will hurt state and local governments ability to pay for education and other critical services. Furthermore, the Senate proposal leaves out children in hard working families earning low wages from an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC); millions of children would receive little or no benefit from the Senate plans to revise the CTC, while the Senate plan expands the credit to higher-income households including those earning up to $500,000 a year. Moreover, both the House and the Senate plans exclude about a million immigrant children who currently qualify for the CTC. The leadership in the House and Senate, as well as President Trump, have squandered an opportunity to use the tax code to promote equity in our nation. Instead, they have chosen to pursue policy changes with a $1.5 trillion price tag which punish the poor and middle classes and enhance the wealthiest 1% of American households and profitable corporations. These tax cuts will lead to larger deficits, which will further threaten the well-being of America s struggling working families. SEE HOW MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE VOTED, PP.4-6

2 THE ACTION WE NEED YOU TO TAKE: Contact your Representative and both your Senators and URGE THEM TO REJECT ANY TAX PROPOSAL WHICH DOES NOT HELP LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME WORKING AMERICANS. To contact your Senators and Representative, you may: Make a Phone Call: Call your Senators and your Representative in Washington by dialing the Capitol Switchboard and asking to be transferred to your Senators'/Congressman s offices. The switchboard phone number is (202) (see message section, below). Write a Letter To write letters to your Senators, send them to: The Honorable (name of Senator) U.S. Senate Washington, D.C To write a letter to your Representative, send it to: The Honorable (name of Representative) U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C Send a Fax A SAMPLE LETTER IS ATTACHED If you would like to send a fax, call your Senators or Representative s offices (through the Capitol switchboard) and ask for their fax numbers (you can use either the attached sample letter or the message box, below). Send an To send an to your Senators, go to click on Find Your Senators. Look up your Senators by state; go to their web sites for addresses. To send an to your Representative, go to and click on Find Your Representative (on the right hand side of the screen) and enter your zip code. This should take you to a screen that identifies who your Representative is and how to get in touch with him or her. REMEMBER TO CONTACT BOTH YOUR SENATORS!!!!! THE MESSAGE The proposed tax plan is bad for low-and middle-income Americans; it will cause great harm to public education; it is mean-spirited towards immigrants and non-citizens; and it is bad economic policy; When coupled with the extreme budget cuts which are being proposed by the Trump Administration and current Congressional leadership these changes to the tax code will seriously damage many of the programs championed by the NAACP; House and Senate leadership have an opportunity to use the tax code to promote equity in our nation; instead, they have chosen to pursue policy which punishes the poor and middle classes and enhances the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT MATTER!!! If you have any questions, call Hilary Shelton at the Washington Bureau at (202) MEMBERSHIP IS POWER! JOIN THE NAACP TODAY. To become an NAACP member or to sign up for legislative and press updates, visit

3 (date) Sample Letter The Honorable United States Senate Washington, D.C RE: MY OPPOSITION TO TAX PROPOSALS WHICH HURT LOW AND MIDLE INCOME AMERICANS WHILE BENEFITTING THE WEALTHIEST AMONG US; OPPOSE THE SENATE TAX PROPOSAL Dear Senator ; As your constituent, I would like you to do all you can to see that any changes to the current tax structure do not harm low- and middle- income Americans. Specifically, I hope that you will work against the Senate tax proposal as it is currently written; it is bad for low-and middle-income Americans; it will cause great harm to health care, public education and other vital services The Senate tax proposal would give big tax cuts to the richest families and corporations, while most middle- and low-income families would realize little or no benefit with many even seeing their taxes go up. Even more damaging is that it would increase the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade, forcing cuts to critical programs. That means the tax bill will ultimately lead to cuts in programs that are integral to the wellbeing of all Americans especially children and their families, senior citizens, disabled Americans, students, and low- and middle-income working families -- including Medicaid, SNAP, civil rights enforcement, housing assistance, public education, Social Security, and Medicare. Furthermore, the Senate bill repeals the Affordable Care Act s individual mandate, the requirement that most people enroll in health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. The Senate bill also sunsets most of its individual income tax cuts after 2025, but maintains a permanent cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent to 20 percent. The savings from individual mandate repeal would pay for about one-third of that permanent rate cut and increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 13 million in Furthermore, repealing the individual mandate would increase insurance premiums by 10%, which amounts to hundreds of dollars per year for nearly 7 million middle-income Americans and over $1,000 per year for seniors. The Senate bill would also repeal the federal deduction for state and local income and sales taxes and cap the deduction for state property taxes, which will hurt state and local governments ability to pay for education and other critical services. Furthermore, the Senate proposal leaves out children in hard working families earning low wages from an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC); millions of children would receive little or no benefit from the Senate plans to revise the CTC, while the Senate plan expands the credit to higher-income households including those earning up to $500,000 a year. Moreover, the Senate plans exclude a million immigrant children who currently qualify for the CTC. House and Senate leadership have an opportunity to use the tax code to promote equity in our nation; instead, they have chosen to pursue policy changes which punish the poor and middle classes and enhance the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. Please do all you can to oppose the current Senate tax proposal as written and instead use this opportunity to amend the current tax code to help bring equal opportunity and fairness to our nation. I look forward to hearing from you to let me know what you intend to do and how I can further promote my ideals. Sincerely, (sign and print your name and remember to include your address) Remember to contact BOTH your Senators.

4 H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act / Final Passage / House vote #637 Final passage of legislation which is bad policy for low-and middle-income Americans; will cause great harm to public education; could mean huge tax increases for families already saddled with exorbitant medical costs; is mean-spirited towards immigrants and noncitizens; and is bad economic policy. All told, the bill will increase the national deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. H.R. 1 passed on November 16, 2017, by a margin of 227 yeas to 205 nays. THE NAACP OPPOSED THE LEGISLATION = voted in support of the NAACP position and against the bill = voted against the NAACP position and in favor of the bill? = did not vote V = seat was vacant ALABAMA 1 Byrne 2 Roby 3 Rogers, Mike 16 Costa 17 Khanna 18 Eshoo 19 Lofgren 3 Tipton 4 Buck 5 Lamborn 6 Coffman GEORGIA 1 Carter, Earl 2 Bishop, Sanford 3 Ferguson 4 Aderholt 5 Brooks, Mo 6 Palmer 20 Panetta 21 Valadao 22 Nunes 7 Perlmutter CONNECTICUT 1 Larson, John 4 Johnson, Hank 5 Lewis, John 6 Handel 7 Sewell ALASKA 23 McCarthy 24 Carbajal 2 Courtney 3 DeLauro 7 Woodall 8 Scott, Austin AL Young, Don ARIZONA 1 O'Halleran 25 Knight 26 Brownley 27 Chu 4 Himes 5 Esty DELAWARE 9 Collins, Doug 10 Hice 11 Loudermilk 2 McSally 3 Grijalva 4 Gosar 5 Biggs 28 Schiff 29 Cárdenas 30 Sherman 31 Aguilar AL Blunt Rochester FLORIDA 1 Gaetz 2 Dunn 12 Allen 13 Scott, David 14 Graves, Tom HAWAII 6 Schweikert 32 Napolitano 3 Yoho 1 Hanabusa 7 Gallego 8 Franks 9 Simena ARKANSAS 1 Crawford 2 Hill 3 Womack 33 Lieu 34 Gomez 35 Torres 36 Ruiz 37 Bass 38 Sánche 39 Royce 4 Rutherford 5 Lawson 6 DeSantis 7 Murphy, Stephanie 8 Posey 9 Soto 10 Demings 2 Gabbard IDAHO 1 Labrador 2 Simpson ILLINOIS 1 Rush 2 Kelly, Robin 4 Westerman CALIFORNIA 40 Roybal-Allard 41 Takano 11 Webster 12 Bilirakis 3 Lipinski 4 Gutierrez 1 LaMalfa 2 Huffman 42 Calvert 43 Waters 13 Crist 14 Castor 5 Quigley 6 Roskam 3 Garamendi 44 Barragan 15 Ross 7 Davis, Danny 4 McClintock 45 Walters 16 Buchanan 8 Krishnamoorthi 5 Thompson, Mike 6 Matsui 46 Correa 47 Lowenthal 17 Rooney, Tom 18 Mast 9 Schakowsky 10 Schneider 7 Bera 48 Rohrabacher 19 Rooney, Francis 11 Foster 8 Cook 49 Issa 20 Hastings 12 Bost 9 McNerney 50 Hunter 21 Frankel 13 Davis, Rodney 10 Denham 51 Vargas 22 Deutch 14 Hultgren 11 DeSaulnier 12 Pelosi 13 Lee 52 Peters 53 Davis, Susan COLORADO 23 Wasserman Schultz 24 Wilson, Frederica? 25 Diaz-Balart 15 Shimkus 16 Kinzinger 17 Bustos 14 Speier 1 DeGette 26 Curbelo 18 LaHood 15 Swalwell 2 Polis 27 Ros-Lehtinen

5 H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act / Final Passage / House vote #637 Final passage of legislation which is bad policy for low-and middle-income Americans; will cause great harm to public education; could mean huge tax increases for families already saddled with exorbitant medical costs; is mean-spirited towards immigrants and noncitizens; and is bad economic policy. All told, the bill will increase the national deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. H.R. 1 passed on November 16, 2017, by a margin of 227 yeas to 205 nays. THE NAACP OPPOSED THE LEGISLATION = voted in support of the NAACP position and against the bill = voted against the NAACP position and in favor of the bill? = did not vote V = seat was vacant INDIANA 1 Visclosky 2 Walorski 3 Banks 4 Rokita 5 Brooks, Susan 6 Messer 7 Carson 8 Bucshon 9 Hollingsworth IOWA 1 Blum 2 Loebsack 3 Young, David 4 King, Steve KANSAS 1 Marshall 2 Jenkins, Lynn 3 Yoder 4 Estes KENTUCKY 1 Comer 2 Guthrie 3 Yarmuth 4 Massie 5 Rogers, Harold 6 Barr LOUISIANA 1 Scalise 2 Richmond 3 Higgins, Clay 4 Johnson, Mike 5 Abraham 6 Graves, Garret MAINE 1 Pingree 2 Poliquin MARYLAND 1 Harris 2 Ruppersberger 3 Sarbanes 4 Brown, Anthony 5 Hoyer 6 Delaney 7 Cummings 8 Raskin MASSACHUSETTS 1 Neal 2 McGovern 3 Tsongas 4 Kennedy 5 Clark, Katherine 6 Moulton 7 Capuano 8 Lynch 9 Keating MICHIGAN 1 Bergman 2 Huizenga 3 Amash 4 Moolenaar 5 Kildee 6 Upton 7 Walberg 8 Bishop, Mike 9 Levin Mitchell 11 Trott 12 Dingell 13 Conyers 14 Lawrence MINNESOTA 1 Walz 2 Lewis, Jason 3 Paulsen 4 McCollum 5 Ellison 6 Emmer 7 Peterson 8 Nolan MISSISSIPPI 1 Kelly, Trent 2 Thompson, Bennie 3 Harper 4 Palazzo MISSOURI 1 Clay 2 Wagner 3 Luetkemeyer 4 Hartzler 5 Cleaver 6 Graves, Sam 7 Long 8 Smith, Jason MONTANA AL Gianforte NEBRASKA 1 Fortenberry 2 Bacon 3 Smith, Adrian NEVADA 1 Titus 2 Amodei 3 Rosem 4 Kihuen NEW HAMPSHIRE 1 Shea-Porter 2 Kuster NEW JERSEY 1 Norcross 2 LoBiondo 3 MacArthur 4 Smith, Chris 5 Gottheimer 6 Pallone 7 Lance 8 Sires 9 Pascrell 10 Payne 11 Frelinghuysen 12 Watson Coleman NEW MEXICO 1 Lujan Grisham 2 Pearce 3 Luján NEW YORK 1 Zeldin 2 King, Peter 3 Suozzi 4 Rice, Kathleen 5 Meeks 6 Meng 7 Velázquez 8 Jeffries 9 Clarke, Yvette 10 Nadler 11 Donovan 12 Maloney, Carolyn 13 Espaillat 14 Crowley 15 Serrano 16 Engel 17 Lowey 18 Maloney, Sean Patrick 19 Faso 20 Tonko 21 Stefanik 22 Tenney 23 Reed 24 Katko 25 Slaughter 26 Higgins, Brian 27 Collins, Chris NORTH CAROLINA 1 Butterfield 2 Holding 3 Jones, Walter 4 Price, David 5 Foxx 6 Walker 7 Rouzer 8 Hudson 9 Pittenger 10 McHenry 11 Meadows 12 Adams, Alma 13 Budd NORTH DAKOTA AL Cramer

6 H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act / Final Passage / House vote #637 Final passage of legislation which is bad policy for low-and middle-income Americans; will cause great harm to public education; could mean huge tax increases for families already saddled with exorbitant medical costs; is mean-spirited towards immigrants and noncitizens; and is bad economic policy. All told, the bill will increase the national deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. H.R. 1 passed on November 16, 2017, by a margin of 227 yeas to 205 nays. THE NAACP OPPOSED THE LEGISLATION = voted in support of the NAACP position and against the bill = voted against the NAACP position and in favor of the bill? = did not vote V = seat was vacant OHIO 1 Chabot 2 Wenstrup 3 Beatty 4 Jordan 5 Latta 6 Johnson, Bill 7 Gibbs 8 Davidson 9 Kaptur 10 Turner 11 Fudge 12 Tiberi 13 Ryan, Tim 14 Joyce 15 Stivers 16 Renacci OKLAHOMA 1 Bridenstine 2 Mullin 3 Lucas 4 Cole 5 Russell OREGON 1 Bonamici 2 Walden 3 Blumenauer 4 DeFazio 5 Schrader PENNSYLVANIA 1 Brady, Robert 2 Evans 3 Kelly, Mike 4 Perry 5 Thompson, Glenn 6 Costello 7 Meehan 8 Fitzpatrick 9 Shuster 10 Marino 11 Barletta 12 Rothfus 13 Boyle 14 Doyle 15 Dent 16 Smucker 17 Cartwright 18 VACANT V RHODE ISLAND 1 Cicilline 2 Langevin SOUTH CAROLINA 1 Sanford 2 Wilson, Joe 3 Duncan, Jeff 4 Gowdy 5 Norman 6 Clyburn 7 Rice, Tom SOUTH DAKOTA AL Noem TENNESSEE 1 Roe 2 Duncan, John Jr. 3 Fleischmann 4 DesJarlais 5 Cooper 6 Black 7 Blackburn 8 Kustoff 9 Cohen TEXAS 1 Gohmert 2 Poe 3 Johnson, Sam 4 Ratcliffe 5 Hensarling 6 Barton 7 Culberson 8 Brady, Kevin 9 Green, Al 10 McCaul 11 Conaway 12 Granger 13 Thornberry 14 Weber 15 Gonzalez 16 O'Rourke 17 Flores 18 Jackson Lee 19 Arrington 20 Castro 21 Smith, Lamar 22 Olson 23 Hurd 24 Marchant 25 Williams 26 Burgess 27 Farenthold 28 Cuellar 29 Green, Gene 30 Johnson, Eddie Bernice 31 Carter, John 32 Sessions 33 Veasey 34 Vela 35 Doggett 36 Babin UTAH 1 Bishop, Rob 2 Stewart 3 Curtis 4 Love VERMONT AL Welch VIRGINIA 1 Wittman 2 Taylor 3 Scott, Robert 4 McEachin 5 Garrett 6 Goodlatte 7 Brat 8 Beyer 9 Griffith 10 Comstock 11 Connolly WASHINGTON 1 DelBene 2 Larsen, Rick 3 Herrera Beutler 4 Newhouse 5 McMorris Rodgers 6 Kilmer 7 Jayapal 8 Reichert 9 Smith, Adam 10 Heck, Denny WEST VIRGINIA 1 McKinley 2 Mooney 3 Jenkins, Evan WISCONSIN 1 Ryan, Paul 2 Pocan? 3 Kind 4 Moore, Gwen 5 Sensenbrenner 6 Grothman 7 Duffy 8 Gallagher WYOMING AL Cheney

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